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IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


JANUARY  9th,  1872, 


ON    THE   PRESENTATION    OF   THE 


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UCSB    LIBRARY 


STATUE  OF  ROGER  WILLIAMS. 


Remarks  of  Hon.  William  Sprape. 


UPON    THE 


PRESENTATION  OF  THE  STATUE  OF  ROGER  AYILLIAMS,  BY 
THE  STATE  OF  RHODE  ISLAND,  TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES,  DELIVERED  IN  THE  SENATE, 
JANUARY  OTII,  1872. 


MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  formally  present,  in  the  name 
and  in  behalf  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  a  memo- 
rial statue  of  its  founder,  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  to  be  preserved  in  the  national  Capital,  with 
the  statues  of  those  other  worthies  whose  services  and 
merits,  in  the  judgment  of  their  grateful  descendants, 
entitle  them  to  this  preeminent  honor. 

It  is  less  to  be  regretted  that  the  artist,  who  has 
created  so  striking  an  ideal  conception  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams, had  no  authentic  source  from  which  he  could 
reproduce  the  likeness  of  the  man,  since  the  name  of 
Ttoger  Williams  is  rather  identified  with  the  living 
ideas  of  which  he  was  the  exponent,  than  with  any 
mere  individualities  of  form  and  feature. 


Two  centuries  and  a  half  have  almost  elapsed  since 
the  General  Court  of  the  Plymouth  Colony  expressed 
the  intolerant  bigotry  of  a  political  clergy  by  pronounc- 
ing sentence  of  banishment  upon  Roger  Williams. 
His  chief  offence  was  a  denial  that  the  civil  power 
extended  to  matters  of  faith  and  conscience  :  and  for 
this  he  was  driven  beyond  the  pale  of  what  was  then, 
in  New  England,  the  abode  of  religion  and  civiliza- 
tion. 

After  experiencing  the  privations  of  a  bitter  win- 
ter in  a  wilderness  among  savages  he  landed,  after  a 
second  warning  from  his  persecutors,  with  a  handful 
of  devoted  friends,  upon  the  western  shore  of  the 
Seekonk,  in  the  early  summer  of  1636.  From  this 
beginning  sprang  the  now  proud  and  prosperous  city 
of  Providence. 

But  it  is  not  because  he  was  the  founder  of  a  city, 
nor  because  he  planted  a  colony,  from  the  loins  of 
which  has  sprung  a  vigorous  State,  that  Rhode  Island 
has  resolved  to  set  up  his  statue  in  the  Capitol  of  the 
nation  ;  but  she  has  accorded  him  this  honor  because 
he  successfully  vindicated  the  right  of  private  judgment 
in  matters  of  conscience,  and  effected  a  moral  and  po- 
litical revolution  in  all  the  governments  of  the  civilized 
world. 

The  doctrine  of  absolute  separation  between  Church 
and  State  is  so  universally  recognized  by  the  men  of 
this  generation,  as  a  cardinal  necessity  to  the  existence 
of  a  free  and  healthy  Government,  and  appears  to  us 


to  be  such  an  evident  political  axiom,  that  it  requires 
an  effort  to  suppose  that  it  was  not  a  principle  of  po- 
litical philosophy  from  the  earliest  settlement  of  this 
country.  It  was  not  so.  The  Puritans  of  Xew  Eng- 
land were  willing  to  suffer  to  the  last  extremity  for 

» 

conscience  sake,  but  they  were  in  no  sense  martyrs  to 
liberty  of  conscience,  and  were  as  intolerant  of  heresy 
to  their  belief  as  the  Conformists  of  England,  or  the 
Church  of  Home.  The  Puritans  brought  with  them 
the  best  results  of  the  Reformation  which  had  agitated 
Europe  from  the  time  of  Wickliffe  to  Luther,  but  as  a 
body  they  hnd  no  conception  of  the  idea  that  in  mat- 
ters of  faith  the  conscience  of  the  man,  and  not  the  law 
of  the  State,  was  supreme.  The  merit  of  Williams  in 
announcing  and  maintaining  this,  then  strange  and 
heretical  doctrine,  is  therefore  to  be  estimated  with  ref- 
erence to  the  adverse  tendencies  and  opinions  of  the 
period.  He  alone  brought  the  great  work  of  the  Re- 
formation to  its  last  grand  stage  of  development. 

It  is  a  mistaken  idea  that  violent  revolutions  are  the 
only  crises  which  determine  the  fortunes  of  a  people. 
There  are  other  influences  less  startling,  but  not  less 
important,  more  gradual  in  their  culmination,  but  not 
less  certain,  which  modify  and  shape  by  their  silentbut 
ceaseless  power,  the  destiny  not  merely  of  a  single 
people,  but  of  a  whole  race.  When  we  contemplate, 
as  with  just  pride  we  may,  the  boundless  resources  of 
our  common  country,  and  realize  that  with  each  suc- 
ceeding year  we  are  giving  strength  and  permanency 


U  I.  Ml     i  I    '  i-f  i  P  v 


to  that  lively  experiment  in  self  government  which  for 
less  than  a  century  has  been  nursed  on  this  continent, 
we  may  well  gratefully  inquire  how  much  of  this  great 
progress  and  political  triumph  is  due  to  the  spread  and 
adoption  of  that  idea,which,  in  weakness  and  in  discour- 
agement, wras  first  resolutely  exhibited  in  a  scheme  of 
self  government  by  a  single  master-spirit,  in  1636.  on 
the  hills  of  Providence. 

It  was  a  happy  thought,  which  suggested  that  the 
several  States  should  contribute  to  form  a  national  gal- 
lery of  the  statues  of  the  men  who  have  been  most  pro- 
minent in  their  history,  Rhode  Island  would  have 
been  untrue  to  her  antecedents,  had  she  failed  to  name 
her  first  citizen  for  this  dignity.  She  presents,  in 
prompt  response  to  the  opportunity,  this  memorial  in 
marble,  for  the  contemplation  of  those  who  resort 
hither  to  witness  the  best  development  of  a  Republican 
Government,  and  in  grateful  acknowldgement  of  the 
services  which,  not  to  her  alone,  but  to  the  whole  world, 
have  been  rendered  by  Roger  Williams. 


The  following  resolutions  were  adopted  : 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  (the  House  of  Representatives  concurring) 
that  the  thauks  of  Congress  be  presented  to  the  Governor,  and 
through  him  to  the  people  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Provi- 
dence Plantations  for  the  statue  of  Roger  Williams,  whose  name  is 
so  honorably  identified  with  our  colonial  history. 

Resolved,  That  this  work  of  art  is  accepted  in  the  name  of  the 
nation,  and  assigned  a  place  in  the  old  Mall  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, already  set  aside  by  act  of  Congress  for  statues  of  emi- 
nent citizens,  and  that  a  copy  of  this  resolution,  signed  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Senate,  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
be  transmitted  to  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  and 
Providence  Plantations. 


88)  611  291 


